Comparison Between Social Classes In The Gilded Age

Industrialization started during the Gilded Age, the Gilded Age was a time of massive amounts of wealth for the politicians, they mostly were corrupt and ineffective, and many of these people were John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and many others. These people were called robber barons; they had lots of money by having too much control in the US. Rockefeller owned the Standard Oil Company; he had 90% control of the world. Andrew Carnegie in document 18-4 states, “The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth…poor and restricted are our opportunities in this life.” Carnegie demonstrates that most of the people living in this age were having bad conditions of life.

This essay will examine the reasons why historians have called “The Gilded Age” to the era between 1877 and 1900, in which poverty, massive immigration, racism and corruption were the base metal of a nation that was gilded with industrialization and sudden wealth in order to make it look perfect with a shine finish. During the XIX century, United States suffered an important economic growth that took place after the civil war and the reconstruction era. The end of the war had a very decisive influence in the industrial development of the nation, giving a strong boost to it, causing a strong demand for many goods and a vertical rise in prices. The progress of American industry has had its repercussions to this day.

The Gilded Age was an age of industrialism. Due to the newer and more updated technology, production was sped up by at least double the speed as men. Machines allowed more to be done in a decreased amount of time with a maximized amount of production. The large plants and industries allowed productions to grow, but with the machines the productions jumped through the roof. Industrialists could now make more profit while spending less on hard labor.

The awareness of the public economic difference has yet brought focus back on to the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era in American history, a topic that hasn 't really been mentioned since the financial crisis, also known as the Global Financial Crisis that occurred in late 2007 leading into 2008. The periods we know as the Gilded Age and Progressive Era were focused more so on the wealth, which is why we compare that time to the time we live in today. Our problem when researching for historical analogies is that we tend to examine in past with our own personal assumptions, finding what all we want, which would consider us to be biased. We are honored to be able to observe the history of our country through the works of Michael McGerr 's A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920. Up until today 's time, historians of the era had given up on the different impulses behind the reform efforts of the progressive era.

The Gilded Age was the period from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the twentieth century. This was an era noted for the widening social and economic gap between the powerful and the powerless. Political life during the Gilded Age was shaped by three main factors: the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans, the high level of public participation in everyday politics, and the often corrupt alliance between business and political leaders at all levels of government. The growing conflicts between city and country, industry and agriculture was the most important political issue. Financially distressed farmers felt ignored by the political process.

American society went through a rapid transformation from 1870s to 1900 and is referred to as the Gilded Age. Social realities were represented through arts and literature and portrayed a society of the working-class struggles contrasted with rising middle class and the wealthy industrialists. A Rally in Chicago on May 4, 1886 in Haymarket Square ended in tragedy when a bomb went off killing police officers and some participants. Public sympathy turned against Labor leading to the arrest and conviction of the rally organizers.

There were no major party differences in the Gilded age. Democrats were mainly Lutheran and Catholic. They promoted education and opposed prohibition. Republicans were politically more successful. They believed in social issues like having moral standards and no regulation.

During the Gilded Age, Americans focused more on politics and national elections during the post-Civil War. Each election had the potential to disrupt the peace between the North and the South. In the late nineteenth century, there were record numbers of voters for each presidential election. The increase in voter turnout was also due to the result of the machine party politics. Powerful, political “bosses” in each party persuaded the urban residents into voting for a favored candidate.

In during the age of the Second Industrial Revolution, the nation perceived in instances of disparity, progression, and revolutionary stanzas. However, this thesis still continues in present history. Known as the “Second Gilded Age,” the nation still permits a crisis of disunity among its individuals. The economic system closely associates in its impact on the federal government, much in similarity to the monopolies and the political representatives’ endorsement to the laissez faire ordeal. Seemingly, technological advances advocated the creation of institutions for the protection of the masses, even in sense that the disparity between the common individual and its wealthy elite are in disproportion defined under the manipulations of the political-social

What was the Gilded Age and why did Mark Twain refer to it as such? To help understand this question, one must know the meaning of the word gild. Per Merriam Webster, the term gild means to “to give an attractive but often deceptive appearance to” (Gild, n.d.). After the Civil War the American people had become tired of all the corruption and simply wanted to see an end to it and to have a stable economy. The Gilded Age was fashioned to be prosperous times for all Americans, promising wealth, and an end to past political corruption.